I have a passion for telling the stories of African Americans.
We have lived lives that need to be recited and passed on to encourage those coming along. Some of the stories I love because my people overcame evil, while others I do not because they did not.
As the passion grows for the storytelling, the love will grow for the stories.
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild.
Only something as powerful as love could make her face this type of demon. But would it be enough? Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.
She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.
I will be doing a presentation this weekend at the Galesburg Public Library in Galesburg, Il. In the meantime, here is the playlist to help you get in the mood.
Phillis Wheatley showed a passion for words and learning as a young girl. Despite the trauma taking place in her world, she showed a love for the written words of her captors.
Love had a dark side as she probably missed all of her family.
But it had a light side, teaching her to love communicating through words.
It is her destiny, and like most, she has a problem with it.
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.